Keynote Speaker I
Prof. Udaya K Madawala, University of Auckland, New Zealand (IEEE Fellow)

Udaya K. Madawala graduated with a B.Sc. (Electrical Engineering) (Hons) degree from The University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, and received his PhD (Power Electronics) from The University of Auckland, New Zealand as a Commonwealth Doctoral Scholar. At the completion of his PhD, he was employed by Fisher & Paykel Ltd, New Zealand, as a Research and Development Engineer to develop new technologies for motor drives. At present as a Full Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Auckland, New Zealand, he leads a group of researchers focusing on a number of power electronics projects that are related to energy and wireless EV charging systems for V2X applications. Udaya is a Fellow of the IEEE and was a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Power Electronic Society (PELS), and has both industry and research experience in the fields of power electronics and energy. He has served both the IEEE Power Electronics and Industrial Electronics Societies in numerous roles, relating to editorial, advisory, conference, technical committees and chapter activities. He was the General Chair of the 2nd IEEE Southern Power Electronics Conference (SPEC)- 2016, held in New Zealand, and is also the Chair of SPEC Steering Committee. Udaya, who has over 300 journal and conference publications, holds a number of patents related to wireless power transfer (WPT) and power converters, and is a consultant to industry.

 

Keynote Speaker II
Chair Prof. Z.Y. DONG, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (IEEE Fellow)

Prof Z.Y. Dong is a Chair Professor and Head of Department of Electrical Engineering at City University of Hong Kong. His previous roles include Singapore Power Group Endowed Professor and Co-Director of SPG-NTU Joint Lab at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; SHARP Professor of Energy System and Inaugrial Director of UNSW Digital Grid Futures Institute, the University of NSW, Australia; Director of ARC Research Hub for Integrated Energy Storage Systems; Head of School of Electrical & Information Engineering, The University of Sydney; and Ausgrid Chair Professor and Director of Ausgrid Centre for Intelligent Electricity Networks provided R&D support for the Smart Grid, Smart City national demonstration project of Australia. He also worked with industry as manager for power system planning with the transmission network service provider of TAS in Australia. Prof Dong's research interests include power system planning and stability, smart grid/micro grid, smart cities, renewable energy systems, energy storage systems, and energy market. He is a Fellow of IEEE and has held editorial roles for several IEEE Transactions and IET Journals.

 

 

Keynote Speaker III
Prof. Saim Memon, Birmingham City University, UK

Prof. Dr. Saim Memon, CEO and Industrial Professor of Renewable Energy Engineering, unifies academic research and development, industrial manufacturing, and product distribution in the global market. Prof. Saim ranked in the top 0.96% worldwide in the field of Energy and the Top 0.86% overall among all scholars worldwide over the past 5 years (ScholarGPS) as a result of extensive academic and research contributions that includes 120+ research publications, 41 taught modules (with module leadership) in electrical, electronic, mechanical, and renewable energy engineering with over 90% student satisfaction, along with successful supervision of 2+ PhD projects, 12+ MSc/MEng projects, and 23+ BEng (Hons) projects. He has held 50+ invited/keynote speakerships, engaged in research collaborations with 40+ countries worldwide, accumulated 1600+ citations with a 23+ h-index and a 52+ i10-index, served in 5+ editor-in-chief and guest editorships, and fulfilled 40+ journal reviewer roles. Prof. Saim has also demonstrated his academic leadership and made significant contributions to lead research group and MSc/MEng/BEng (Hons) courses directorship and degree apprenticeships with development and validation. Prof Saim built his academic research career in the UK, earned PhD in Mechanical, Electrical & Manufacturing Engineering; PGCert in Teaching Qualification; MSc in Mechatronics; and BEng (Hons) in Electrical Engineering (1st Class Distinction). Prof Saim is also a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of Higher Education Academy, holding Qualified Teacher Status granted by General Teaching Council for Scotland in the UK. Prof. Saim has world-leading multidisciplinary research expertise in Electrical, Mechanical, and Renewable Energy Engineering. His specific research experiences encompass net-zero energy buildings, vacuum insulation, thermal management of electric vehicle batteries, translucent vacuum insulation panels, energy materials for vacuum insulated smart windows, vacuum-based photovoltaic solar thermal collectors, applied semi-transparent photovoltaics and switchable films, renewable energy technologies, thermoelectric devices for energy harvesting and smart grid integration into electric vehicles with fast-charging battery mechanisms.

 

 

Keynote Speaker IV
Prof. Henry Hu, University of Windsor, Canada

Dr. Hongfa (Henry) Hu is a tenured full Professor at Department of Mechanical, Automotive & Materials Engineering, University of Windsor. He was a senior research engineer at Ryobi Die Casting (USA), and a Chief Metallurgist at Meridian Technologies, and a Research Scientist at Institute of Magnesium Technology. He received degrees from University of Toronto (Ph.D., 1996), University of Windsor (M.A.Sc., 1991), and Shanghai University of Technology (B.A.Sc., 1985). He was a NSERC Industrial Research Fellow (1995-1997). His publications (over 150 papers) are in the area of magnesium alloys, composites, metal casting, computer modelling, and physical metallurgy. He was a Key Reader of the Board of Review of Metallurgical and Materials Transactions, a Committee Member of the Grant Evaluation Group for Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, National Science Foundation (USA) and Canadian Metallurgical Quarterly. He has served as a member or chairman of various committees for CIM-METSOC, AFS, and USCAR. The applicant’s current research is on materials processing and evaluation of light alloys and composites. His recent fundamental research is focussed on transport phenomena and mechanisms of solidification, phase transformation and dissolution kinetics. His applied research has included development of magnesium automotive applications, cost-effective casting processes for novel composites, and control systems for casting processes. His work on light alloys and composites has attracted the attention of several automotive companies.

 

 

Keynote Speaker V
Assoc. Prof. Chen Shuheng, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China

Shuheng Chen, male, was born in September 1974. He received the B.Eng. and M.Sc. degrees from Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, in 1998 and 2000, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from Sichuan University, Chengdu, China, in 2007. All degrees are in electrical engineering. From September 2013 to September 2014, he was a visiting scholar at the department of energy technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark. Now, he is an associate professor with the school of energy science and engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China. His research interests include optimization and planning of modern distribution systems, smart substation, and wide-area measurement and control of power systems. He has published 14 SCI/EI papers as the first author on the famous journals, including IEEE transactions on power systems, IET transactions on generation, transmission and distribution, International Jourals of Electrical Energy System, and so on.